First bike in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome as Glasgow 2014 celebrates Three Years to Go

Glasgow 2014 is marking Three Years to Go until the XX Commonwealth Games with the first bike inside the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome. The venue will host the track cycling during the Games and is due for completion next year.

On Wednesday 23 July 2014, people from around the globe will be celebrating the Opening Ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and the start of 11 days of world-class sporting competition between 71 Commonwealth nations and territories.

To celebrate this landmark, the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee will be staging a series of Three Years to Go celebrations. Today (Wednesday 20th July) the first bike will be in the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, later this week there will be the official launch of the Pictograms for the Games and the celebrations will continue at the Merchant City Festival this weekend with a “sporting challenge” that will give festival-goers a taster of all 17 sports that are represented in the Games.

At the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Jenny Davis, a Scottish Track Cyclist, was the first cyclist to take a bike into Scotland’s only indoor Velodrome. Jenny won a Silver medal in the team sprint at Delhi 2010 and will be aiming to go one better when competing on home soil when the Games are in Glasgow three years from now.

The 250-metre track at the Velodrome has been designed by Ralph Schuermann, one of the world’s foremost track designers and the Velodrome is named in honour of Scotland’s most successful gold medal winning Olympian and Commonwealth Games champion: Sir Chris Hoy.

Lord Smith of Kelvin, Glasgow 2014 Chairman, said:

“Glasgow 2014 is no longer a distant prospect, the venues and infrastructures are rising from the ground in Glasgow and all across Scotland people are getting involved and starting to feel the excitement that the Games will bring in three years time.

“We have had some fantastic achievements over the last year, new landmarks such as the Athletes’ Village, the National Indoor Sports Arena and the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome are taking shape and the continued regeneration of the East End will be just one of the tangible signs of this historic time for Glasgow.”